Archive for December, 2010

Alright, lets see…”Where has the time gone?” 2010 was a very interesting year in the Frost household, full of new cars, new jobs and a new member to the Frost clan.

So I am going to go about this is a quasi reverse chronological order, mean I will be jumping around a bit. On June 30th Gillian and I welcomed our first child, Elena Fordyce Frost, weighting in a 5lbs 15oz. and 19 1/2 inches long. The months leading up to her birth were not as scary as I would have thought, though the last couple weeks could have gone smoother. Gillian developed pre-eclampsia and was on bed rest for a week, then spent 4 days in the hospital before having a c-section after attempts to induce her failed…yea, little stressful! Both mother and child are doing just fine now. The last 6 months have been wonderful, it is true what they say, they do grow up so fast. It seems like just yesterday we brought her home and now she is rolling around and desperately trying to crawl, now if she could only grow some hair she might look like a 6 month old.

I was a busy summer and not only with the birth of our daughter. I was in two weddings the first of college friend Ben Retzer to Lisa Ulrich on May 15th and the other of life long friend Joel Michalski to Sara May on July 31st, both were wonderful ceremonies and I was honored to be part of them. Colin, Katie, Colleen and PJ came to visit and we attended the first Nebraska State fair to be held in Grand Island.

After four years with Children’s Rehab Center, Gillian has changed jobs. Coming back off maternity leave Gillian made the very difficult decision to leave, she needed a job with a more flexible schedule, she would normally get off work at 6 pm and her new job with Aegis allows her the ability to manager her own schedule and be home by 4pm. Though, in true Gillian fashion, she can’t just change jobs, she has to go from one job to two jobs. Gillian also took a job at the local community college as an instructor in the COTA program, so Gillian has gone back to school..again, but this time she is on the other side of the desk. I have also recently made a job change of sorts, I have moved from being a contract employee to be a permanent salary employee of CNH. I am still doing the exact same job, with the exact same people and boss but now I get CNH benefits ,which are a lot better, and I get e new employee number,I am not sure why.

I would not be me if I did not discuss the new vehicle in our life. We decided that the Ranger was not very baby friendly and we needed something that would carry us, a baby a dog, baggage and pull a camper on occasion. So, in March I sold the Ranger back to the dealership that I bought it from, I didn’t even realize they did that, and purchased an 2010 Outback, of course we had to drive to Omaha to do that. We have had it now for about 9 month and have put 14000 miles on it, it is a great vehicle that fits our needs perfectly. With the truck gone the BMW became my mode of transportation, which I am not complaining about in the least. I still have to park outside because we still own more cars than drivers or garage spaces. Speaking of the Falcon, the engine is still out of it but I am very,very close to finishing the engine rebuild, that being said there is still a lot of work to be done before it actually runs, but the engine is almost finished and that is progress!

In this upcoming year we are looking forward to a number of exciting events. We are planing a trip to Germany to visit Brandon and Erika and my college roommate Dan and his girlfriend Ines, still need to nail down the dates, but we are going this spring/summer. Hopefully we will not be “those people” on the plane with a screaming baby, the flight to Germany is long, crossing our finger Elena will sleep for most of it. Also this summer we will be going to the Outer Banks of NC to spend some time with my mom’s side of the family. They have rented a house on the beach and we are looking forward to spend some time in the ocean!

So there you have it and with about 12 hours to spare. I would like wish everyone the happiest of New Years! Good luck on the resolutions and don’t forget to check in from time to time to see what we have been up to, and if you check back in a day or two I might have all the spelling errors fixed, or just go to elenafrost.com to see all thing Elena, because I know that is all you really care about.

I sent out the first batch of Christmas cards yesterday. I say first batch because I didn’t realize how many friends and family we have, so I had to have more made…then I ran out of stamps. Anyway, check back here in a few days, probably after Christmas, and I should have the “Frost Year in Review” up for your reading enjoyment full of all the grammatic errors, spelling mistakes and run on sentences you have come to love. Till then check out Elena’s Blog and see even more pictures on my Flickr page.

Last week I officially registered for the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam, which is the last, 8 hour 80 question, step to becoming a Licensed Professional Engineer. Becoming a Professional Engineer is something I have wanted to do since college and it is not as simple as just taking a test. First off I had to graduate with a degree in engineering, BSME from the University of Nebraska, check. Secondly, I had to take the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, this an eight hours exam consisting of 80 questions covering the brevity of my education. I took this test in October of 2004, it was the most difficult exam I had ever taken and I walked away positive that I had failed it miserably…but I didn’t, I passed! Now, after the required five years of working experience, step three, I was able to submit an application to the Nebraska Board of Engineers for permission to take the PE exam. The board approved my application and I will be taking the exam on April 8th. Now I just have to spend the next three months studying.

On a similar note, after nearly two years of working as a contractor, I have accepted a permanent position with CNH, doing the exact same thing I have been doing for the last two years. I was required to submit an application and resume and am going to be getting all new sign-ins and passwords… for a job I am already doing. My “start” date is Monday Dec 20th, of course I will still be there from now until Friday Dec 17th. The benefit of being a permanent employee is, benefits! CNH has very good insurance and as a new father, I all of a sudden care a lot more about that.